made of gold and ivory, on which was carved Love brandishing a thunderbolt as the ensign. And once having gone to supper at the house of Anytus, by whom he was greatly beloved, and who was a rich man, when one of the company who was supping there with him was Thrasyllus, (and he was a poor man,) he pledged Thrasyllus in half the cups which were set out on the side-board, and then ordered the servants to carry them to Thrasyllus's house; and then he very civilly wished Anytus good night, and so departed. But Anytus, in a very affectionate and liberal spirit, when some one said what an inconsiderate thing Alcibiades had done; 'No, by Jove,' said he, 'but what a kind and considerate thing; for when he had the power to have taken away everything, he has left me half.'"
48. And Lysias the orator, speaking of his luxury, says—"For Axiochus and Alcibiades having sailed to the Hellespont, married at Abydus, both of them marrying one wife, Medontias of Abydus, and both cohabited with her. After this they had a daughter, and they said that they could not tell whose daughter she was; and when she was old enough to be married, they both cohabited with her too; and when Alcibiades came to her, he said that she was the daughter of Axiochus, and Axiochus in his turn said she was the daughter of Alcibiades." And he is ridiculed by Eupolis, after the fashion of the comic writers, as being very intemperate with regard to women; for Eupolis says in his Flatterers—
A. Let Alcibiades leave the women's rooms.
B. Why do you jest. . . .
Will you not now go home and try your hand
On your own wife?
And Pherecrates says—
For Alcibiades, who's no man ([Greek: anêr]) at all,
Is, as it seems, now every woman's husband ([Greek: anêr]).
And when he was at Sparta he seduced Timæa, the wife of Agis the king. And when some people reproached him for so doing, he said, "that he did not intrigue with her out of incontinence, but in order that a son of his might be king at Sparta; and that the kings might no longer be said to be descended from Hercules, but from Alcibiades:" and when he was engaged in his military expeditions, he used to take about, with him Timandra, the mother of Lais the Corinthian, and Theodote, who was an Athenian courtesan.
